Ivan Aivazovsky

This coin commemorates the world-famous artist Ivan Aivazovsky (1817 - 1900). A painter of seascapes and battle scenes and a patron of the arts, he depicted the powerful element, the sea, in all its glory. Aivazovsky was the most realistic and a record-breaking artist in the global practice of pictorial arts - he created over 6,000 paintings, which were shown at 113 exhibitions during his lifetime. The artist`s most famous works, seascapes and battle scenes, include `Moonlit Night on the Crimea. Gurzuf,` `The Seashore,` `The Ninth Wave,` `The Siege of Sevastopol,` and `The Mill on the River. Ukraine.` Aivazovsky produced one of his most well-known paintings, `Among the Waves,` when he was 80 years old. Ivan Aivazovsky was born in the Crimean town of Feodosia. He spent his childhood near the sea, which always fascinated him. That is why the bulk of his works depict the sea. However, many of his paintings have Ukrainian motifs, such as the Dnipro River, steppe, chumaks (Ukrainian traders and oxcart drivers), and wedding scenes.

Obverse:

Above are Ukraine`s small coat of arms and the legend УКРАЇНА (Ukraine), to the left of which is the coin issue year 2017; in the middle is a conventionalized fragment from a picture by Aivazovsky; beneath are the coin face value 2 ГРИВНІ (2 hryvnias) and the mint mark of the NBU Banknote Printing and Minting Works.

Reverse:

There is a portrait of Ivan Aivazovsky, to the left of which are the semicircular legend ІВАН АЙВАЗОВСЬКИЙ (Ivan Aivazovsky) and the years of his birth and death 1817/1900; to the right of the portrait is the artist`s signature.